The goals of the proposed research are (1) to attempt to ascertain whether a strong relationship exists between residental density as defined by both building type (high vs. low-rise) and apartment and the well-being of low-income children living in these different circumstances, (2) to provide information helpful to planners and designers in building low-income family housing and to help evaluate public housing policies and (3) to gather information about specific experiences of children in such environments that will identify social and physical circumstances that ameliorate potential negative outcomes and other process-related information. The studies proposed will both provide data on the effects of residential density on low-income children (now totally lacking) and further test and extend the principal investigator's theoretical model of the effects of density based on processes of social overload and physical constraint. Two studies will be conducted to provide this information. In the first study, 200 school-aged children (6 to 13) were selected from a low-income housing project having both high and low-rise buildings. The third factor (arising from previous research), the theoretical expectation that amount of resources determines the severity of strain created by density, is status of head of household. Interviews were conducted in the local schools to gather data concerning the well-being, daily experiences, family conflicts, perception of social norms, academic achievement and school behavior of children in these various physical-social environments. The second study will employ the same 3 independent variables (building type, apartment density, status of household head) to determine whether low-income children having contact with mental health facilities as either in or out-patients are more likely to come from high density, low-resource environments. The third phase of the proposal would consist of conducting workshops with design, planning and mental health professionals to generate alternative social and physical programs on the basis of data generated in the first two stages.